Monday, July 11, 1960 Time Magazine

The 15,000 men and women who thronged California’s Long Beach Memorial Stadium last week differed from most conventioneers in one major respect: there was no danger that any of them would get together in a hotel room to kill a bottle. For this was Alcoholics Anonymous, mustering its recovered, sworn-off drinkers, their relatives and well-wishers to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

Uncrowned but undisputed head of A.A. is Bill W., a tall Vermonter in his early 60s who drank himself out of a lucrative career as a high-risk stock operator. “In 1934,” he recalls, “my doctor told my wife that if I didn’t stop I’d have to be locked up because I’d either go mad or die.”

Bill W. didn’t stop until he drank himself into a hospital, and realized that he must quit or die. He had to find another drunk in the same predicament, so that by helping each other, they would ensure their own survival. In Akron in June of 1935, he found his friend, Dr. Bob (who died of cancer in 1950). Together they founded A.A. and laid out the basis for its famous twelve tenets.

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